Scottish islands: data overview 2023

Executive summary

This report provides a snapshot of island-level data relating to Scotland’s islands as collated in the new Scottish Islands Data Dashboard. The interactive dashboard responds to the commitment set out in the National Islands Plan to “review the availability, usefulness of, and the wider barriers to, island level data both at an individual island level, groups of islands and consider the creation of a ‘Scottish islands’ data level in order to better understand the challenges faced by island communities”.

The data snapshots provided here relate to the strategic objectives set out in the National Islands Plan covering: population; sustainable economic development; transport; housing: fuel poverty; digital connectivity; health, social care and wellbeing; environment biosecurity; climate change and energy; empowered island communities; arts, culture and language; and education. In relation to these, the report also highlights a number of positive attributes of Scotland’s islands including:

• Higher than average employment rates in most island areas compared with the Scottish average.
• High levels of Gross Value Added in a number of island regions.
• Improved access to high-speed internet in the islands in recent years.
• High levels of satisfaction with access to GPs, pharmacies and dental healthcare.
• A strong sense of community belonging across island areas.
• High levels of cultural participation across the islands.

However, the report highlights a number of challenges facing Scotland’s islands including:

• Island populations are either declining or growing more slowly than in mainland areas and have an increasingly older age profile across all island groups.
• Falling numbers of private sector businesses in a number of island areas.
• Low satisfaction with the cost of transport in island areas.
• High levels of non-resident home ownership compared to the Scottish average.
• Low recycling rates compared with the Scottish average.
• High levels of energy inefficiency in homes and higher levels of fuel poverty across most island areas compared with the Scottish average.
• Significant potential risks to the islands from climate change in terms of flooding and contamination of freshwater.
• High suicide rates in most island local regions compared with the Scottish average.

In doing so the report highlights how the Scottish Islands Data Dashboard, which uses the new Scottish Islands Region Geography to frame existing data-sets, might improve our understanding of Scotland’s islands.